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He grinned. “That’s good. I was worried about you.”
“How am I alive?”
“It’s because you’re bound to me,” Ash said.
I nodded. “Philippa…” I glanced at him. “Philotes, I guess I should say, told me we were bound somehow.”
“Did she?” Ash asked, looking worried. “What did she say?”
“That we’re bound together and that’s why I can sense the magic. She told me a while ago, when I came to you about magic the first time. That’s when we talked.”
“She didn’t say anything else?”
I shook my head. “I was pissed off at you for misleading me, so I didn’t really talk about a lot of things with her that day.” I smiled, feeling silly about how angry I was then. “I guess I overreacted a little, but it’s all so crazy.”
Ash nodded slowly, chewing the bread with cheese he’d served up for himself after I’d dug into mine.
“So, I survived being shot because we’re bound together somehow,” I said. “What about the guys who came after me? Why did they have magic?”
Ash shook his head and frowned. He took a sip of wine and swirled it in his cup. He didn’t have fancy wine glasses, but that didn’t matter. It tasted better than any wine I’d had before.
“I don’t know how that happened. Something doesn’t make sense to me, and now that they’re all dead, I don’t have anyone I can torture the answers out of.”
I looked up at him, brows raised. He was joking, right?
He only shrugged at me.
“At least it’s all over,” I said. “They’re gone, and I’m home free.”
“Something like that,” Ash said, nodding. He took more sips of wine. “No one is going to come looking for you here, so you’re safe to stay here as long as you need to.”
“Thanks,” I said. “This place is amazing, but I just want to go home.”
He nodded again. He looked closed off, guarded. Something was bugging him.
“Will I be able to see you again?” I asked. “After I go back?”
Ash shook his head. “No, I don’t think you’ll remember me.”
“I’ll forget?” I asked, alarmed. “Why?”
“After you’re out of the vale for a while, everything here will fade in your memory until it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s how it works. It’s how our realms stay apart from each other.”
“I don’t want to forget you,” I said.
Ash nodded. “I know, but it just doesn’t work to have mortals and immortals mix.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Will you forget me?”
Ash shook his head. “No. We’re not afforded that luxury.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. It would be a luxury for him to forget me? Or did he mean something else? Before I could ask, Ash shifted so that he sat with his back against the couch next to me. Our shoulders touched, and his warmth seeped into my skin.
I leaned my head against his shoulder.
Ash leaned his head against mine and put his hand on my arm. He stroked my arm with his thumb, and the motion was soothing. Then, he turned his head, tilted my head up to his, and kissed me.
The kiss was electric, as it always was, and heat washed through my body. His tongue slid into my mouth, he cupped my cheek, and I moaned.
